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Kazakhstan wins right to bring world's leaders to Astana

 Kazakh foreign minister Kanat Saudabayev, who is acting chair of the OSCE, said the summit would be a "new and very important milestone in the life of our organisation".



Kazakhstan has been lobbying tirelessly for the OSCE summit ever since it took the rotating chair of the organisation in January, hoping to use the event to build its international profile. The event will be the organisation's first summit since Istanbul in 1999

The go-ahead came after the United States threw its support behind the Central Asian nation's proposal at the organisation's informal ministerial meeting in Almaty on Friday.


President Obama was lukewarm on the proposal when Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev brought it up at a nuclear security summit in Washington in April.


"What has happened yesterday was that the United States, which was so far reluctant, has accepted the prospective of having a summit meeting in Kazakhstan in 2010," said Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, the OSCE Secretary General.

The exact date and agenda for the meeting will decided at a meeting of the OSCE council in a week's time.


Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said US support came after Kazakhstan said the summit would pay "appropriate attention" to "issues around freedom of association, and protection of journalists," as well as strengthening the OSCE's ability to carry out its crisis prevention role.


But Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE's representative on Freedom of the Media sharply criticised Kazakhstan's record on these issues, saying that new media restrictions unbefitting of the chair of the OSCE, which promotes free speech and democracy.


The Leader of the Nation Law, which came into force last month, threatens journalists who "violate the honour" of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country's president, with sentences of up to two years "correctional labour".


It also contains penalties for prying into the president's bank accounts.
"This law is not something that a chair in office should be showing as a step in a positive direction," said Mrs Mijatovic.


"This law is very bad for investigative journalism."


She said she was also campaigning for the release of Kazakh journalist Ramazan Tahtarovich Yesergepov, who was jailed last August for an article exposing official corruption.


David Lidington, UK Minister for Europe, said he had raised the issue of human rights and media freedoms during the summit meeting.


"We want to see every member of the OSCE, including Kazakhstan, live up to the principles for which these organisations stand. I think the responsibilities of being the chairman of the organisation, certainly the responsibility of hosting a summit, does put a particular spotlight on any country in that role."


Mr de Brichambaut said that he did not expect President Obama to attend the summit – despite the fervent wishes of the Kazakh chairman.


"I would be surprised if in a year where there are midterm elections that President Obama would have enough time to cross the Atlantic and half of Europe and Asia twice. I understand that there's a period during which there's a good chance Hillary Clinton would be available to visit."


Telegraph.co.uk

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